He had just moved from Cincinnati to live with her, and this incoming sophomore was an instant campus attraction.

“They got so excited when I enrolled him at school,” Butler, 63, recalled in a recent phone interview. “They kept walking back and forth by the office, saying how big he is and asking if he played football.

“I said he was obsessed with football, but I was more concerned about keeping up his grades.”

While Hyde did not plan to play football, he was eventually recruited — and lived up to expectations.

Playing at Naples re-ignited a career that takes Hyde back to Florida this weekend. As a third-year running back, he will be counted on to help the 49ers (1-9) snap their nine-game losing streak Sunday against the Miami Dolphins (6-4).

“Can’t wait. I get to see my grandmother,” Hyde said. “That’ll be good.”

Naples Daily News

Butler is just as excited to make the 100-mile drive east from Naples to see a grandson who gave her the football from his first NFL touchdown, in his 2014 rookie debut at Dallas.

At what point during his sophomore through senior seasons in high school did Hyde show glimpses of an NFL future?

“That was just about every Friday,” Butler said. “Everybody in Naples knew he was going to make it.”

Not everybody. Hyde was not banking on a NFL career, or even one in which he’d win a high school state championship.

“I wasn’t playing football when I moved there. I wasn’t thinking about it,” Hyde told this newspaper in July training camp. “I was thinking about getting away (from Cincinnati). Get away from all the bad stuff and take a different route.”

Butler was not alone in helping re-route her grandson.

“He had a lot of people in Naples talking to him and trying to guide him in the right way,” recalled Butler.

Naples High coach Bill Kramer emerged as a father figure to Hyde, who returns to Kramer’s youth camps in the offseason and received texts from his old coach praying for good health.

“He’s as good as I’ve ever coached,” Kramer told the Naples Daily News on Hyde’s 2014 draft day. “He has the size the NFL is looking for. … He’s genetically gifted. To have that much size and that much speed and agility is rare.”

Avoiding injury has been the bane of Hyde’s 49ers career, however. He’s missed 13 of 42 possible games, including two this season because of a sprained shoulder.

After rushing for just 14 yards at Arizona in his Nov. 13 return, Hyde reverted to his aggressive form Sunday and ran for 86 yards against the New England Patriots, who won 30-17. He gained confidence in his shoulder when he used it on a block that sprang Colin Kaepernick for a late touchdown in that loss to Arizona.

“It’s been feeling really good,” Hyde said. “I haven’t had any pain, so I feel like myself again.”

His grandmother, on the other side of the country, winces with each of his injuries. “Every time he gets hurt, I’m ready to fly out there,” said Butler.

Each offseason, Hyde relocates to Florida and rents a place in Miami, where he’ll train and hang out with friends from his Naples High days.

His hobbies back then as a teenager? “Play football, hung out with my teammates and go fishing all the time,” Hyde answered. “In Naples, you could (fish) off bridges, sneak behind somebody’s house to go off in the gulf, and there’s tons of places to go inland.

“I got hip into spear fishing. I did it in Miami but I didn’t like it — too dark for me.”

The dark side of the 49ers season is a nine-game losing streak they hope to end in Miami.

“I’m extremely proud of him and I know how hard he’s working,” Butler said. “He’s really trying to hang in there.”